The unemployment rate in 27 major cities has declined by two percentage points during 1999-2000 and 2004-05.
The rate of unemployed men and women in Class-I cities (with over one million population) dropped by a uniform two per cent to the level of three and four per cent respectively in 2004-05, a survey on 'Employment and unemployment situation in cities and towns in India 2004-05' released by National Sample Survey Organisation said on Friday.
Among the Class-I cities, highest Work Population Ratio for men was witnessed in Surat (88 per cent) and for women in Varanasi (44 per cent).
The lowest WPR for men and women was recorded in Patna at 53 per cent and two per cent respectively, indicating high unemployment rate.
The NSSO survey further reveals that in Class-I cities, the regular employees outnumbered self-employed and casual labours.
However, in Class-II towns (having a population of over 50,000 but less than one million) and Class-III towns (with a population of less 50,000), the proportion of self-employed persons was higher than regular employees and casual labourers.
The proportion of men in the total employed persons decreased by one percentage point, while for women it increased by one per cent during 1993-94 to 2004-05 in urban area as a whole, the NSSO survey said.
During the same period, the Worker Population Ratio for women of 15 years and above increased by two percentage point for Class I cities and Class II towns while it remained the same for Class III towns, it added.
Among Class I cities, the sharpest rise of 11 per cent in WPR for men of 15 years and above was observed for Surat. This was followed by Bangalore and Hyderabad at nine percentage points during 1999-00 to 2004-05.
The biggest decline of seven per cent in WPR during the period was observed in Patna, which was followed by Lucknow.
For women of 15 years and above, the sharpest rise of 27 percentage point in WPR was observed in Jaipur followed by Varanasi (21 percentage points). The steepest decline of nine percentage point was seen in Chennai, which was followed by Kanpur with seven per cent, the NSSO survey said.
Christians have the lowest illiteracy levels in the country but the highest unemployment rate, the survey said.
"In rural areas, the unemployment rates were higher among the Christians (4.4 per cent) as compared to those among the Hindus (1.5 per cent) or Muslims (2.3 per cent). In the urban areas also same pattern was observed," the survey added.
According to the survey on employment and unemployment situation among major religious groups in India for 2004-05, Christians also had the lowest illiteracy rate for both rural (20 per cent for men and 31 per cent women) and urban areas (6 per cent for men and 11 per cent for women).
The survey covered 7,999 villages and 1,24,680 sample households.
Except for rural women, the proportion of literates among the Hindus was higher as compared to Muslims.
The worker population ratio among men in rural area was highest among Christians (56 per cent), followed by Hindus (55 per cent) and Muslims (50 per cent). For women, the ratio was 36 per cent for Christians, 34 per cent for Hindus and 18 per cent for Muslims.
The WPR among men in urban areas was highest for Hindus at 56 per cent followed by Muslims (53 per cent) and Christians (51 per cent). In case of women, the WPR was highest for Christians at 24 per cent, followed by Hindus (17 per cent) and Muslims (12 per cent).
The survey said nearly 49 per cent of Muslim households in urban areas were self-employed as against 36 per cent Hindu households and 27 per cent Christians.
